#yeah I'm binge consuming scams and cults but I guess that's how I'm dealing with liars at the moment

[slickshoesareyoucrazy]

Healing With Storytelling

"They look into your soul, they see what you're missing, and they take advantage of that..."

"For a con artist, deception is a constant practice...they aren't delusional; they're doing it very deliberately..."

"All con artists always return to conning... they're really personable and fun...they have an explanation for everything..."

These are all pieces of interview quotes from psychologist (and poker player) Maria Konnikova from the documentary FyreFraud.

J and I (mostly I) have been on and off watching programming and listening to podcasts about scams and cults for the past several years. We watched FyreFraud and The Inventor, the documentary about the Theranos scandal before basketball games the past couple days. And for the past couple of days, the media has really been helping me feel better. And media has always helped me feel better.

A couple days ago, as I did housework, I was listening to a podcast about emotional abuse and one episode was about abusive parents, and one was about a cult situation, and each of those people talked about how seeing something on television helped them heal and gave them hope and showed them that the situation they were in wasn't right. The person with abusive parents said that watching Full House and how Danny Tanner parented his fictional kids showed her that it was possible for a parent to love and listen to and be attentive and kind with their kids. She even said, "I thought maybe this only happens on sitcoms/TV," and it's not real, but then she began to see hints of Danny Tanner in her friends' parents and her teachers and neighbors. The podcast hosts sort of half jestingly said they wondered if Bob Saget knew he helped someone see their life could be better. He probably didn't, but I bet the podcast guest isn't the only kid he helped, and as corny as that show is, or so many fictional stories about families are, I think they do help a lot of people have hope for better days ahead and better relationships.

And the person in the cult situation said they truly didn't see the cult behavior and structure in the organization they were involved with until they saw Leah Remini's nonfiction series about scientology and saw the similarities. They actually openly thanked Leah Remini for telling the stories.

Storytelling, both fiction and honest nonfiction, does heal people. Personally, I've always found it a lot easier to have compassion and care and be moved to justice and kindness for other people than I have for myself. Storytelling has always allowed me to see myself in other people, and made it easier to have compassion for myself. Like the person gaining insight and hope from Full House, I felt that too as a girl, reading books and watching films and shows about loyal friends and attentive parents and patient romance. And I solve problems and create happy endings when I tell the stories I create too. I hope it helps people. Even if they think I'm corny like Full House.

Those quotes from the FyreFraud documentary at the top made me realize that what I'd probably experienced throughout late 2021 and 2022 wasn't a tragic shift in someone's addiction or mental illness. It was a scam. A con. And they'll be back conning now with new marks, I'm sure. I certainly never would have bought in for thousands of dollars for a tropical island luxury concert festival, or investing in a medical tech start up, but those films did help me see what I did experience for what it was and how carefully crafted con artists can be. They can target you specifically with what they've gleaned will make you trust them. I'm not even a very trusting person. In fact, I'm notoriously socially cautious and skeptical. But they still got me by telling the exact right lies and deflecting any doubts in the exact right ways for over a year. I'm grateful for this storytelling. And I'm grateful for Not Dead Yet and Bob's Burgers and Animal Control for humor and affection and silliness and sentiment too. I need storytelling to heal, and I'm hoping to write new stories soon that hopefully help other people heal too.